I found the whole experience very misleading and stressful.
I was hired as a Consultant for a project however this project was delayed. This meant my start date was delayed by two months while other projects were found. I was only notified of this 3 days before my agreed start date. This was very challenging as I had left my previous job so did not have a salary at that time.
During the interview process, I was asked which industries I would be willing to work in. I stated all except Defence (this is for personal reasons). I was assured I would be able to work in my areas of interest and that this would not be an issue. However, when finding projects I was consistently put forward for roles in the Defence industry, often at a much higher level of responsibility than I had experience for. I felt very pressured to accept these projects for the security of my job. I continued to raise my wishes to work in any other industry and was pushed towards a senior electronics role as a technical expert, which was confusing as I had no prior experience of electronics.
I felt like Alten do not care if you have the right experience, they are simply looking for engineers to fill empty job roles. Throughout the hiring process and my time in the role I felt highly pressured to accept very senior job roles which I was not appropriate for. This was very difficult to navigate.
Also for those interest in hybrid working, most projects offered were based in very remote/ far away locations which expected 5 days a week office days and relocation.
I personally would not recommend this company. Although in the hiring process it sounds like the perfect opportunity, nothing I was told in my interview turned out to be true. As the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I would highly encourage people to continue searching for other roles if offered a job at Alten.
